The Persistent Power of Human Rights : From Commitment to Compliance

The Persistent Power of Human Rights provides an important contribution to the world's emerging human rights agenda, tackling key questions, including why some established democracies continue to engage in proscribed behaviours such as torture. Using a unique blend of qualitative and quantitative research, it will engage academics, policymakers and practitioners.

The Power of Human Rights (published in 1999) was an innovative and influential contribution to the study of international human rights. At its center was a 'spiral model' of human rights change which described the various socialization processes through which international norms were internalized into the domestic practices of various authoritarian states during the Cold War years. The Persistent Power of Human Rights builds on these insights, extending its reach and analysis. It updates our understanding of the various causal mechanisms and conditions which produce behavioural compliance, and expands the range of rights-violating actors examined to include democratic and authoritarian Great Powers, corporations, guerrilla groups, and private actors. Using a unique blend of quantitative and qualitative research and theory, this book yields not only important new academic insights but also a host of useful lessons for policy-makers and practitioners.